Videos

Memorial Service To Be Held January 8

A memorial service for Gary Chapman will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 2 p.m. at the Central Presbyterian Church located at 200 East 8th Street, Austin, TX 78701-3210.

Gary Chapman’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in his name to a memorial fund being established at the LBJ School. See below for more information on the memorial fund.

LBJ School Community Memorial Service to be Held Jan. 27

An LBJ School community-wide memorial service will be held for Professor Gary Chapman on January 27 beginning at 12:15 p.m. The event will take place in the LBJ School of Public Affairs first floor lobby.

Memorial Fund

The Chapman family is grateful for the outpouring of support from friends, colleagues and students. If you wish to make a donation in Gary’s honor, a memorial fund is being established at the LBJ School. To contribute to this fund, please:

Send a check, payable to the "University of Texas”. In the memo of the check, please indicate the funds are for the Gary Chapman Memorial Fund. Checks can be sent to:

Carolyn Miles Garber
Director of Development
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
P.O. Box Y
Austin, TX 78713-8925

If you wish to contribute with a credit card, visit the University's online giving site.
Please designate that your gift will go to the LBJ School and indicate in the special information box that this gift is intended for the Gary Chapman Memorial Fund.

AUSTIN, Texas-- December 15, 2010-- Gary Chapman, Senior Lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Associate Director of the Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin and internationally recognized expert on Internet policy, telecommunications and technology policy, died of a heart attack Tuesday, December 14, in Guatemala while on a kayaking trip, according to his family.

"The LBJ School has lost a beloved colleague, inspirational teacher, and wonderful friend. Gary was a man of shining integrity, whose memory and example we will carry with us," said Dean Robert Hutchings. "Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family and friends along with our heart-felt gratitude for a life of such profound contribution. We will miss him dearly."

Chapman, who joined the LBJ School in 1994, served as the most recent graduate advisor for the Master of Public Affairs degree program and as the School’s Director of the 21st Century Project, which explores ways for citizens to be involved in policymaking involving technology, particularly in the areas of telecommunications, the Internet and digital media. He was the author of numerous articles on technology and society for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, The New Republic, The Washington Post, Technology Review, Communications of the ACM and many others. In 1995, his 21st Century Project helped bring computers and the Internet to low-income areas of Austin.

From 1995 to 2001, he was an internationally syndicated columnist on technology for The Los Angeles Times, and his column, called "Digital Nation," was carried in over 200 newspapers and websites. Chapman was also a technology columnist for Texas Monthly magazine and a general editorial columnist for The Austin American-Statesman. He has taught and lectured all over the world, most recently as a guest faculty member at the University of Porto in Porto, Portugal.

In early 2000, Chapman was named one of the "25 Most Powerful Texans in High Tech" by Texas Monthly. In 1999, The Austin American-Statesman named him one of its "Ten to Watch." Chapman has also served as chairman of the selection committee for the Turing Award, the world's highest award in computer science.

From 1984 to 1991, Chapman was executive director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the only national public interest group of computer scientists. The organization investigated international security, arms control, the role of computers in the arms race, and computers and privacy. In 1991, Chapman co-founded the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference, which is still held annually.

Gary Brent Chapman was born on Aug. 8, 1952, in Los Angeles. In the mid-1970s, he served as a media with the Army Special Forces or "Green Berets."

Chapman earned his B.A. in political science from Occidental College in 1979 and attended Stanford University's Political Science Ph.D. program in 1984, when he left to work at Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.